Mint Precancels

Kids are back in school, so I have had time to re-start sorting my stamps.

2 quick questions about Mint precancels:

a) is there any specific market for them? (i.e. are there collectors who seek them out rather than just keeping whatever falls their way)

b) are they worth any premium?

oops, third question:

c) and following on from a) and b) ... is there any value beyond the aesthetic to maintaining the gum integrity on mint precancels? I am hinging most of my collection (the ones under 50c) and I keep finding 15c mint precancels. I'd rather save the mounts for the more valuable items -- but if I hinge the cheap-o mint ones, am I losing anything tangible?

Thanks!

If they are pre-cancelled, they are cancelled, not mint (regardless of whether or not there is gum on the back).

No loss to hinging if done properly.

Some precancels before 1940 or so, I would leave unhinged; I see auction descriptions adding a premium for the relatively few copies that remain. Before 1920, definitely leave unhinged.

I would tend to agree. Even though the majority of precanceled stamps may be of minimal value, if a stamp -- any stamp -- contains original gum, it should be preserved that way.

Unless there are hundreds of stamps involved that would make it a hardship to afford stamp mounts for all such items, precancels with original gum that are preserved in that condition could be more desirable to someone in the future.

Thanks, guys.

Yes, while hoping that I would get a different answer, I'm also leaning to the same view as wt1 -- I should preserve the original gum just on principle.

It's not so much the cost of mounting them -- the primary issue is that I was intending using the mounts as kind of a quick reference so that when I glance at a page I immediately know which ones are rarer. If I use mounts for cheap mint ones too, that interferes with the Grand Plan.

I could get diferent (e.g. clear) mounts, I suppose, for the mint!